Dance Company

Founded in 2007, Sarah Bush Dance Project creates and presents multimedia dance
theater through innovative artistry, community interaction, and feminist ideals. SBDP creates art that reminds audiences of the power and compassion in ourselves and others, bolstering a resilient hope for humanity.

Since 2007 SBDP has created four critically acclaimed repertory shows in the Bay Area: Spirit & Bones, Home, Rocked by Women, This Land, and is now in production for Un-Changing Nature to be held at The Flight Deck in Oakland, October 25-27, 2019.

The SF Chronicle said of our sold-out Spirit & Bones premiere, “Dance makers want to reflect the zeitgeist in their productions. But every so often the planets align, and a long-planned work ends up tapping the cultural climate so aptly that it doubles as a rallying cry.”Of the outdoor landscape series, The Huffington Post said, This Land, “the drama of Bush’s highly charged movement is meant to renew our sense of self, our sense of place and community.” The SF Bay Guardian reviewed Rocked by Women, a coming of age story honoring the history of women’s music, as “a weighty yet explosive expression of the power of an indomitable spirit and embracing courage.” A Homeward audience member reflected, “Homeward stirred memories and longings for relationship, for meaning, for home. Such a feast of choreography.”

“Dance makers want to reflect the zeitgeist in their productions. But every so often the planets align, and a long-planned work ends up tapping the cultural climate so aptly that it doubles as a rallying cry.”
— San Francisco Chronicle

SBDP also has a full calendar of community performances and workshops. SBDP held a 2019 artist residency at Dos Rios, and was the 2018 company in residence at the Berkeley Art Center, using interactive performances to facilitate art appreciation. In 2017, SBDP created, taught, and performed the Wonder Flashmob dance in honor of International Women’s Day and led free, outdoor, all-ages This Land workshops through the East Bay Regional Parks District “Multicultural Wellness” Programs. In 2106 SBDP offered 3 different free outdoor site-specific This Land Oakland dance performances, as well as participating in and providing free performances or workshops for Dance Anywhere, Bay Area Dance Week, and Oakland Dance Festival.

SBDP productions have received funding from the the City of Oakland’s Cultural Funding Program, the Zellerbach Foundation, Blum Family Foundation, Meriama Fund, Bernstein Family Foundation, Queer Cultural Center, Clorox Foundation, Open Meadows Foundation, and the Della Davidson Prize. SBDP has held residencies at Berkeley Art Center, Dos Rios, SAFEhouse for the Performing Arts, and Shotwell Studios. Bush’s work has been presented at Concept 23, Dance In Revolting Times (D.I.R.T.), PUSHfest, West Wave, Women On The Way, Global Women’s Rights Forum, National Women’s Music Festival, National Queer Arts Festival, Olivia Travel cruises, Summer Feast, Summer Performance Festival (SPF)9, SF Movement Arts Festival, and San Francisco International Arts Festival. Domestic and International performance locations include Oakland, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Dos Rios, Moab, Madison, New York City, Washington DC, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Stockholm.

photo by Sarah Bush

“Homeward is an intriguing, heartfelt look at human connections and the ways people feel at home; it left the audience thinking about its own versions of home long after they left the studio.”
— The Daily Californian

Praise for This Land
The SF Chronicle described This Land as, “ A paean to the beauty landscapes of Oakland”…“exuberant and visceral choreography.” Dance Europe Magazine named This Land a Critic’s Choice selection for “premiere of the year.”

“Against these spectacular, constantly shifting backdrops, infiltrated by ambient sounds and intentional music, the drama of Bush’s highly charged movement is meant to renew our sense of self, our sense of place and community.” (The Huffington Post)

Reviews of Rocked by Women
The SF Bay Guardian wrote: “Rocked is a weighty yet explosive expression of the power of an indomitable spirit and embracing courage… a warm, skillfully created, and generous show that just might become a Mother’s Day tradition,” and The Huffington Post added, “A monumental work, which would reverberate just as powerfully in an opera house as it did in the intimate Dance Mission Theater.”

Sarah Bush Dance Project is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a non-profit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Sarah Bush Dance Project must be made payable to “Fractured Atlas” only and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.